Remy Bumppo to Explore "The Human Puzzle" in 2013-2014 Season

The Remy Bumppo' Theatre Company delights in opening a thematic umbrella over its subscription season. Emblazoned on the umbrella for the 2013-2014 lineup are the words "The Human Puzzle." As artistic director Nick Sandys explains it: "The three plays explore the mysteries of the human condition, but in very different modes."

Here are the productions planned:

± "Northanger Abbey" (Oct. 2-Nov. 10): The U.S. premiere of Tim Luscombe's stage adaptation of the Jane Austen work about 17-year old Catherine, a voracious reader, who travels to Bath, dabbles in romance, and makes the Gothic tale she's reading come all-too-much to life, causing her to misinterpret much that's happening around her. Joanie Schultz will direct a cast that includes Annabel Armour.

± "An Inspector Calls" (Dec. 4, 2013 - Jan. 12, 2014), the J.B. Priestley classic set in 1912 England, where the Birling family has just enjoyed a fine dinner in their upper-middle class home and is disrupted by the arrival of Inspector Goole, who brings word of a sudden death. The inspector proceeds to interrogate the family, discovering dark secrets and setting off a series of revelations in thisdark social critique in the form of a whodunit. David Darlow will direct a cast that includes Greg Matthew Anderson.

± "Our Class" (April 2- May 25, 2014): Ryan Craig's English version of a prize-winning work by Polish writer Tadeusz Slobodzianek. The story tells of how, for decades, it was believed that the annihilation in 1941 of the Jewish population of Jedwabne, Poland was a Nazi atrocity. The truth turned out to be even more shocking as this play looks at the build-up to the massacre, the events themselves, and the impact on the lives of survivors, all told through the eyes of ten classmates, half Jewish and half Catholic, who were young adults at the time. Sandys will direct David Darlow, Shawn Douglass and Linda Gillum.

In addition to the subscription series, Remy Bumppo will also reprise five performances of Sandys' adaptation and solo performance of Charles Dickens' "The Chimes in December."

All four presentations will be at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. Subscriptions will go on sale in March. Single ticket sales will open in August. For additional information visit www.remybumppo.org.